On Sunday, March 20, 2022, members and friends of St. Luke African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church are invited to join our Pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jermaine Mulley, in our sanctuary to offer praise and thanksgiving to our great and merciful God for His sustaining grace and boundless mercies over our 102 years of existence. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 Pandemic canceled our elaborate plans to celebrate the 100th Anniversary. So, here we are, two years later, grateful to God that none of our members died due to COVID; we are alive to see each other’s faces! Glory and praise unto Jesus for His redeeming grace.
On March 20, 1920, two years after the Pandemic of 1918, former Holy Cross Episcopal Church members, led by Pastor Reginald Grant Barrow, were accepted into the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. They had walked out of Holy Cross Episcopal Church due to the Episcopal Bishop’s demands that Pastor Barrow’s preaching and teaching not include references to the socio-economic and other negative impacts of slavery and racism upon the members of the congregation. These “churchless” wanderers found themselves worshipping under a tamarind tree in Grove Place until David Hamilton Jackson, a local freedom fighter, recommended that they seek to be connected to the AME Church in America. Mr. Jackson and the Labor Union were also instrumental in providing the land upon which the current sanctuary is located.
Over our 102 years of service, ten pastors have provided spiritual leadership to the St. Luke AME Church family. Our current pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jermaine Mulley, is the second “son of St. Croix soil” to be privileged to serve for the past three and a half years. (the Rev. Dr. Vincent Gordon was the first native son) Pastor Mulley is married to Elect Lady Cliaunjel, and they are blessed with a daughter, Genesis.
The Reverend Dr. Keith Donaldson D. Lawrence, who hails from the island nation of Trinidad, will deliver our anniversary message. He was called to ministry and ordained in the AME Church at the youthful age of 18. He relocated to the United States to further his education and has earned his Bachelor of Arts in Religion and Philosophy, Master of Divinity, and Doctor of Ministry. He currently serves as the Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio, and was recently appointed as the Pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church located at 2046 Richard Allen Lane SE, Atlanta, GA 30316, where he and his wife continue to follow God’s call to win souls for the kingdom.
Dr. Lawrence will also perform a Doctoral robing ceremony to celebrate Pastor Mulley’s completion of his Doctor of Ministry from Payne Theological Seminary. Payne, an AME Church institution of higher education, is the oldest freestanding African American seminary in the United States. Dr. Mulley’s degree concentration was Biblical, Political, and Social Ethics.
St. Luke is located at 28 Grove Place, Frederiksted. The service will begin at 11:00 a.m. It will be live-streamed via Facebook and YouTube at St. Luke AME Church-St. Croix.
To be a blessing in your giving, you may send your contributions via Givelify: St. Luke AME Church – St. Croix, orPayPal: Stlukeame340.
For more information, please contact Pastor Mulley at 340 277-0501.
